Tempo + Rogas = <3

I’m not gonna lie – Tuesday’s obnoxious track high carried me pretty much through the whole week.  By last night I was ready to run fast again.  After a few weeks of Thursday hills, I was creepily looking forward to this week’s tempo run.

(Turns out I’m more of a ‘short and extremely painful’ run lover.  That’s my run secret.  LONG LIVE THE TRACK AND TEMPOS!)

So I laced up my kinvaras (still my “speed” shoe of choice) and slapped on my new Oiselle Violet Rogas ready for 6 miles with 4 at 7:20 tempo.

all of these ugly photos will come back to haunt me someday.

Most of the mile warm up was spent in severe denial and confusion.

“It’s the wind making this 8:50 feel so hard, right? Jesus how loud are my steps? I sound like a buffalo. A buffalo in pretty pink shorts. Oh god, is it really time to go now? F. Ok. Here we go, legs.”

These fast paces are still so foreign to my poor 4-hour-marathon legs.  I mean, they definitely prefer running faster – stretch out the stride a little bit rather than keeping all 8 feet of them cramped up in conservative little distance strides – but they just don’t know what to do!  8 min?  6 min?  They don’t know the difference until my lungs send a memo down south that they’re going to combust if we don’t cool it a little.

So I spent a lot of time watching Garmin.  I’ve been told I’m supposed to be doing less of that (obsessing over times), but when the workout is built around a goal pace and your newborn legs don’t know the difference between a gallop and a sprint, it’s kind of hard.

Speed up, slow down, cruise… oops too slow. cruise… oops too fast.  Repeat.

I’m hoping I’ll eventually be able to “feel” these paces a little easier, but for now a glance down at Garmin every 30 seconds will have to do.  I mean, whatever, it worked.

 7:17, 7:15, 7:06, 6:57

I’m majorly happy.  Shout from the rooftops happy (ummm I have).  Not just the splits, but that I felt strong physically AND mentally the whole run.  I kept convincing myself to “just hang on! half way done! pick it up this last set! sprint the last 400m, comeon!!!”

No problem talking myself into hanging onto a lung-bursting, muscle-burning pace for 30ish minutes, but slow and steady for 3 hours?  Fing forget it.

Anyways, the most important part of all this isn’t my run revelations or breaking tempo pace or how I look like I have a terminal illness without mascara.  Nope.  The real story is my new favorite shorts.

I major love these bad boys.  They have a much cleaner cut than those saggy-ass Nikes, without feeling too form-fitted or constricting.  The material is a heavenly silky something-another and they have the small little hip pocket on the inside AND a zipper pocket on the butt.

After getting a sneak peek of their beauty in Houston (and badgering Oiselle on Twitter for the impending release date every single day after) I had one TINY reservation before pulling the trigger.

I run with music.  Almost all the time (unlike this girl).  Clip iPod to waistband, thread under sports bra (to prevent bouncing/getting tangled in the wire), pop in earbuds.  Shoes, Garmin, go.  Auto-pilot.

The drama of finding a new iPod system with an un-foldable waistband was huge.  Life-ruining, pretty much.

BUT I went against my non-risk-taking ways and bought them anyways.  And guess what?  Emily is a dirty liar.  Def foldable.

imaginary earbud cord not threaded for visual effect. crotch shot complimentary.

So if you’re a waistband-folding, shuffle-jamming, Tempo-wearing, afraid-of-change freak like me, take this as your shove off the bridge.  The rogas are your friend.  BFF.  Forever.  Life.  Anti-quitsies.

Oh and because I know you’re really wondering…

once again, eventual internet blackmail served on a platter

 You’re welcome.

GOOD LUCK TO EVERYONE RACING THIS WEEKEND!  I’ve got a 12 miler and then a 5K on schedule tomorrow – If anybody’s running the Tustin Leprechaun Leap lets drink some green beer after.  Cool?  Deal.

Sarah OUaL

I purchased these shorts on my own and was not compensated/bribed/or threatened to write these things by Oiselle or anybody else. You knew that though. OUaL says what OUaL wants.